dad's birthday dinner = delicious
[prologue]
i would like to proclaim my love for my new hairstylist. not only did she give me a kick-ass haircut, but she squeezed me into her day because i wanted to get a cut before i head to new orleans (see epilogue). also, she is a lovely woman with whom i had an actual conversation (as opposed to random chit-chat about celebrities and whatnot) and who completely listened to and dealt with my hair neuroses. i am now rocking a chunkily deconstructed bob, a la sharin foo - but without the bangs.
i do not do bangs.
[my dad's birthday dinner]
consisted of:
lamb loin chops
these were so ridiculously easy to do: remove from package, season with salt & pepper, toss them in a pan with some olive oil and butter to sear, and then cook to a deliciously tender medium rare.
red wine-rosemary-shallot sauce
i made a "pan sauce", meaning that i took some of the lamb drippings and all the stuff crusted on the bottom of the frying pan and made a sauce out of it. i threw in some red wine, fresh rosemary and finely diced shallots and dear god, it was tasty. it was the perfect marriage of the big shiraz, the meaty lamb, and the really delicate shallots.
garlic mashed potatoes
my pet peeve with mashed potatoes is that people tend to over-mash them, thus turning them into a gluey starchy mess. over-mashing causes the cell walls to break down and release starch, thus causing the whole thing to turn into a gloopy, gloppy sad thing that is nothing like fluffy mashed potatoes. the trick is to put them through a potato ricer, food mill or sieve once and only once, and to molest them as little as possible. i finished the potatoes with cream (infused with onions, garlic and nutmeg), butter, salt & pepper. on their own, the potatoes were really good - but on the plate with the robust lamb flavours, they could have used a lot more seasoning. good to remember for next time.
rainbow chard
the vegetable currently haunting my dreams is rainbow chard. it's so fantastically bright, sometimes almost fluorescently so. the bunch that i grabbed was a combination of green chard, red chard (neon pink, more like) and this gorgeous in-betweener that had stripes of pale pink and white. i braised the stems with garlic and chili flakes, and then tossed in chopped leaves just until they wilted.
wolf blass yellow label 2006 shiraz
i can't take credit for this one, but it went really well with the lamb. had the lamb been from new zealand, this might have been some sort of australia/new zealand-themed dinner.
green tea creme brulee
i used a floral jasmine tea, and the flavour came out really nicely. i bought a blowtorch for the occasion, and got the thinnest possible layer of caramelized sugar without heating the custard underneath.
creme brulee is one of those lovely things that seems so simple, but is tricky to get right. it's a delicate interplay between getting each component exactly right: the caramelized sugar should be thin enough to just shatter in your mouth while the custard is cold, impossibly smooth, and cooked until just set (and not a minute more!). when you get it right, it's a beautiful thing.
[epilogue]
next week i'm heading to new orleans for a conference, huzzah! i have dreams of beignets with cafe au lait, gumbo, jambalaya, file powder, po'boy sandwiches stuffed to the brim with fried oysters...
i am flying out of seattle, so i'm also spending a day or two there with J, whom i haven't seen since we watched the 4th of july fireworks from E's rooftop apartment in DC. i already have a list of a dozen restaurants and pastry shops to visit. also, there's a chocolate maker that i need to see. this is no ordinary chocolatier: they roast and formulate their own chocolate, and then make delicious things with it. this i've gotta see. and taste, of course.